Control rooms to come up for booking sand orders

Sand will now be made available to consumers through advance booking procedure. For those constructing new houses or repairing the old ones can place their order for sand on phone.

This was disclosed at a meeting of the district mining department here on Monday. The meeting was chaired by deputy commissioner Ravi Bhagat in which sub-divisional officers (SDOs) and officials of mining department were present.

The DC said control rooms would be opened for booking requirement orders for sand. These control rooms will be located in the city and at all the sub-divisional headquarters and some other identified spots. The control rooms will have a telephone booking number.

"Orders placed by consumers will be booked only. No orders of contractors or of wholesale agents will be entertained," the DC said.

He said the transportation charges (for sand) will also be notified at the control rooms.

This is being done to prevent overcharging as was happening earlier when the sand mafia was active, he added. The district administration will also notify the spots for sand mining.

The administration is hoping that these steps will keep the sand prices in check.